The Quick and the Read

(Audio)Book Review: ‘Life Lessons from Historical Women’ by Eleanor Morton

I read a lot of non-fiction; I am always on the lookout for books that are interesting, thought-provoking but also – and this is key – entertaining. I have stacks of books on fascinating topics, but the style doesn’t always grab me – this is why Eleanor Morton’s book was a breath of fresh air for me.

In this book, Morton takes us through a selection of lessons we can learn from historical women, for example ‘How to Fight for your Rights’ (about Emily Davison), ‘How to Express Yourself’ (Artemisia Gentileschi), ‘How to See Beauty in Everything’ (Ada Lovelace). There were lots of women that I’d heard of before (Mary Seacole, etc.) but also plenty that I hadn’t, or hadn’t really thought about, such as the Match Women (the Bryant and May factory workers who went on strike) or the Dahomey Warriors. As Morton reminds us, these are great historical women, but also people’s mothers, wives, sisters, daughters and this makes their stories powerful and relatable. Relating these women to today’s events and attitudes also helps to make them more real – Morton packs her book with modern references, showing that the issues that the historical women dealt with have their modern parallels. However, that’s not to say that the historical element is skimped upon at all as the book comes across as well-researched.

There are also short, informative chapters that intersperse the ‘self-help’ chapters – these take the form of lists of interesting facts, e.g. 10 historical ways to deal with periods, 10 muses who were also artists, 10 things you didn’t realise were invented by women. I really enjoyed these quick and fun snippets of history and they broke up the longer chapters well.

This audiobook is narrated by the author herself and does it brilliantly – she has a humorous tone and lively delivery. I love the fact that the historical content is punctuated by Morton’s own thoughts and insights which made me laugh out loud at times. Lots of this felt very relatable, for example her thoughts on her chances of survival in Australia or her overt sense of guilt about childhood misdemeanours! I found her to be a candid, chatty and well-informed guide throughout.

I’d wholeheartedly recommend this book/audiobook to anyone interested in women’s history – and anyone who feels that there are valid life lessons to be learned from the past (there definitely are!) Morton’s selection of women are incredibly diverse, interesting and inspirational. I definitely learned new things and enjoyed the learning process!

I received a review copy of this audiobook from NetGalley. Opinions are, however, entirely my own. To be honest, I’d have happily bought this one and felt it to be a bargain!

Header photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash.

Blog Tour: ‘Whole Life Sentence’ by Lynda La Plante

It’s out now! The last book in the brilliant Tennison series – this is Book 10 and it’s another great mystery.

Thanks to Compulsive Readers for inviting me to join #TeamTennison and to Zaffre Books for my review copy. Opinions, as always, are my own.

I’ve loved this series and it has been a treat to read it from the start with other bloggers as part of #TeamTennison. It’s been great to see Jane Tennison develop from a new recruit in the Metropolitan Police to a DCI in the prestigious AMIT unit. Along the way, she’s investigated IRA bombings, serial killings, cold cases, armed robberies and a fair dose of police corruption – it’s been a varied career and an enjoyable one to follow.

Blog Tour: ‘Forget Me Not’ by M. J. Arlidge

Thanks to Compulsive Readers for inviting me on the blog tour for this – the latest in the brilliant DI Helen Grace series. Thanks also to Orion Books for my copy of the book – as always, opinions are entirely my own.

A new M. J. Arlidge book is always a treat – fans of the series will know exactly what I mean and what to expect. There’s always the fabulous but maverick DI Helen Grace at the book’s heart, usually immersed in a tense, dangerous and high-stakes investigation as part of Southampton Police’s Major Incident Team.

This book starts on Day One with the abduction of a young girl, a case that DI Grace wants the team to prioritise. However, she is put under strict instructions to put her team to work instead on the gang crime that is taking over Southampton’s streets. As DI Grace is never one to follow orders, she begins work on the case of the missing girl – and uncovers some disturbing and dark secrets that are a little too close to home…

Blog Tour: ‘Northern Boy’ by Iqbal Hussain

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this fabulous, uplifting, heartwarming book! Thanks to Random Things Tours and Unbound for my spot on the tour and also my copy of the book for review. As always, opinions are entirely my own.

From the Publisher:

It’s 1981 in the suburbs of Blackburn and, as Rafi’s mother reminds him daily, the family moved here from Pakistan to give him the best opportunities. But Rafi longs to follow his own path. Flamboyant, dramatic and musically gifted, he wants to be a Bollywood star.

Twenty years later, Rafi is flying home from Australia for his best friend’s wedding. He has everything he ever wanted: starring roles in musical theatre, the perfect boyfriend and freedom from expectation. But returning to Blackburn is the ultimate test: can he show his true self to his community?

Navigating family and identity from boyhood to adulthood, as well as the changing eras of ABBA, skinheads and urbanisation, Rafi must follow his heart to achieve his dreams.

My Review:

There was so much that drew me to this book – the word ‘uplifting’ in any blurb is always appealing, plus I loved the idea of a 1980s setting (not that I’m old enough to remember the 80s too well…!) The fact the book is published by Unbound was also very promising – I’ve loved all the books I’ve read from that publisher and often find their books fabulous quality, quirky and offbeat.

I wasn’t disappointed at all – this is a story of Rafi Aziz, the ‘northern boy’ growing up in 1980s Blackburn but dreaming of stardom. He’s talented, has the support of his lovely teacher Mr H and best friend Shazia – but, unfortunately, not his family. They think his Bollywood fascination is a phase and something he will outgrow, plus being a flamboyant kid in 1980s Blackburn isn’t exactly smoothing Rafi’s way at school. Especially as the dreaded Everton High School beckons…

The story starts 20 years after Rafi’s tricky school days with Rafi travelling back to the UK for Shazia’s wedding. He’s made a success of his life with musical theatre roles, a serious boyfriend and a happy existence in Australia where he has chosen to settle. Coming back to Blackburn forces Rafi to relive his past and face up to some unfinished family business.

The 2001 sections of the novel are great – Rafi travelling back to the UK, meeting up with friends and family, attending the wedding and sorting out the family stuff. However, the 1981 sections are just amazing – really evocative of a life growing up in a small community where everyone knows everyone else’s business. It’s a childhood of shared bedrooms and ‘Smash Hits’ and local news on TV, ‘Bunty’ and Jim Davidson and the man from the Milk Tray adverts. I may not have grown up northern, or a boy, or Pakistani, or a Bollywood wannabee, but – wow – was it relatable.

It’s also a vivid picture of the Pakistani community in Blackburn – I really loved the descriptions of the cultural elements (the food, the clothes, the Bollywood films) alongside the trappings of a 1980s British childhood. There are some brilliant characters in there too – Shazia is a bit of a force of nature, Rafi’s siblings prove problematic at times (as with all siblings!) and Mrs Kappor is wonderfully opinionated. Rafi’s mother is also subtly portrayed, at once evoking sympathy and something much less positive as the novel progresses.

I always worry that novels like this are going to prove a bit too ‘gritty’ for me, but that isn’t the case here. While bad things do happen and Rafi has a tough time, the overwhelming feeling from the novel is heartwarming. It’s genuinely uplifting and funny and sweet and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

About the Author:

Iqbal Hussain is a writer from Blackburn, Lancashire and he lives in London. His work appears in various anthologies and on websites including The Willowherb Review, The Hopper and caughtbytheriver. He is a recipient of the inaugural London Writers’ Awards 2018 and he won Gold in the Creative Future Writers’ Awards 2019. In 2022, he won first prize in Writing Magazine’s Grand Flash competition and was joint runner-up in the Evening Standard Short Story Competition. In 2023, his story ‘I’ll Never Be Young Again’ won first prize in the Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature short story competition. He was also Highly Commended in the Emerging Writer Award from The Bridge Award. Northern Boy is his first novel.

Blog Tour: ‘Taste of Blood’ by Lynda La Plante

Here we are – the 9th and most recently published of the Tennison series! This marks the last of my regular #TeamTennison reviews…until the publication of Book 10 in July!

Thanks to Compulsive Readers for inviting me on the tour and Zaffre Books for my review copy. As always, opinions are my own.

Book Review: ‘You Don’t Have To Be Mad To Work Here’ by Benji Waterhouse

I’m really intrigued by people’s jobs and always enjoy a sneaky behind-the-scenes look at other people’s careers. Especially jobs I could never do in a million years – and NHS psychiatrist can definitely be added to this list if this book is anything to go by!

Benji Waterhouse takes us on a journey through his psychiatric career – right from when he chose to specialise in psychiatry through to his various placements as he grapples with the state of mental healthcare in the NHS. Through this, we also learn a bit about Waterhouse’s family, his own mental health problems (it’s totally normal and actually recommended for psychiatrists to be in therapy themselves) and his feelings about the challenges of the job.

The easy comparison here is Adam Kay – like Kay, Waterhouse is funny and self-deprecating, but also doesn’t shy away from the more shocking elements. It’s always engaging and eye-opening, but often sad and frustrating too, as a lot of Waterhouse’s initial learning seems to be how to discharge patients who he has serious concerns about but for whom there is no available hospital bed. We meet a range of these patients – some ‘frequent fliers’ who play the system, some tragic and suicidal cases, and some whose mental health challenges have comic elements (although much of the humour is really levelled at Waterhouse himself). It’s important to say that Waterhouse doesn’t undermine the dignity of the patients – obviously, they are given pseudonyms or are amalgams of cases he’s encountered, and their difficulties are presented as (sometimes temporary) ailments or through unusual situations rather than being who they are as people.

I really enjoyed this book, if ‘enjoyed’ can be the right word for something that raised so many concerns about the broken NHS system of mental healthcare. This is a system stretched to its limits, peopled by those who are doing their best in impossible circumstances and receiving little recognition for their considerable efforts. However, it’s also often a warm portrait of patients who Waterhouse clearly cares about deeply. In fact, he comes across well himself too – a caring, if stressed and hardworking doctor with a bit of imposter syndrome and going through an incredibly steep learning curve.

This will make you very glad you’re not an NHS psychiatrist, but very grateful for the fact that some people do sign up for it as they’re clearly needed. It will definitely make you want mental health services funded properly. It will also raise a few smiles too – there are some lovely comic touches, with the table tennis story being my favourite!

Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy – opinions are entirely my own.

Header photo by rivage on Unsplash

Blog Tour: ‘The Continental Affair’ by Christine Mangan

I’m delighted to start the blog tour for ‘The Continental Affair’!

With thanks to Random Things Tours and Bedford Square Publishers for my spot on the tour and copy of the book for review. Opinions, as always, are my own.

From the Publisher:

With gorgeous prose, European glamour, and an expansive wanderlust, Christine Mangan’s ‘The Continental Affair’ is a fast-paced, Agatha Christie-esque caper packed full of romance and suspense.

‘Reads as if Jean Rhys and Patricia Highsmith collaborated on a script for Alfred Hitchcock; it is an elegant, delirious fever dream of a book.’
The Irish Times

Meet Henri and Louise. Two strangers, travelling alone, on the train from Belgrade to Istanbul.

Except this isn’t the first time they have met.

It’s the 1960s, and Louise is running.

From her past in England, from the owners of the money she has stolen―and from Henri, the person who has been sent to collect it.

Across the Continent―from Granada to Paris, from Belgrade to Istanbul―Henri
follows. He’s desperate to leave behind his own troubles and the memories of
his past life as a gendarme in Algeria.

But Henri soon realises that Louise is no ordinary traveller.

As the train hurtles toward its final destination, Henri and Louise must decide
what the future will hold―and whether it involves one another.

Stylish and atmospheric, ‘The Continental Affair’ takes you on an unforgettable journey through the twisty, glamorous world of 1960s Europe.

My Review:

I’d read and enjoyed ‘Tangerine’ by Christine Mangan, so it was a pleasure to be asked to join the blog tour for ‘The Continental Affair’. What’s not to like about a 1960s tale of glamour and mystery and romance playing out across some of Europe’s most gorgeous cities?

The story is told from both Henri’s and Louise’s perspectives, and across a dual timeline. In the ‘Now’ timeline, they are meeting on a train heading across Europe. It seems to be a meeting of strangers forced to share a train compartment, but we soon discover that Henri knows exactly who Louise is – and what she’s up to. The ‘Before’ sections then take us into the back-story so that we discover more about the characters and their motivations. The longer the cat and mouse game goes on, the more the tension rises…

What I really loved about this novel was the sense of place; the detail in the descriptions of the cities is vivid and sumptuous. I particularly loved the focus on the Alhambra, beautiful and serene, where the two first ‘meet’. While the visual description throughout the novel is fabulous, what’s really striking is the fact that the novel is a sensory treat – this is a world where orange blossom and creponne add tantalising smells, thumbs rub against banknotes, local delicacies are tasted and the characters move in and out of the warm golden sunlight and shadows.

It’s a world – glamorous in an old-fashioned way – that is evoked so vibrantly that it feels like Mangan has dropped us into a movie. Enhancing this is the sense of claustrophobia that Mangan weaves into the novel – although European travel is open to the travellers, their personal situations mean they are trapped in different ways, be it grief, the past, money…

I found that I was more strongly drawn to Henri at the start of the novel – although his situation is morally very dubious, I really felt for his back-story and how he had managed to get into this situation far from his home in Algeria. He seemed a much more human character than the slightly aloof and detached Louise, but this initial impression soon shifted as Louise’s back-story was explored with a key moment outside a Parisian cemetery. I really started to root for her as she – this quite reserved and naive English woman – started to relax into the European way of life and make her own choices.

I did like the fact that the story kept moving between the perspectives and timelines, although it also took a bit of getting used to. I did think it was a bit of a slow-burner – the initial sections were quite slow, but I found myself totally immersed in the story once Louise left Spain with Henri following at a distance.

I’d recommend this to readers who like tense and tightly-wound noir thrillers; there’s a simmering sense of menace within the glamorous and gorgeous locations, a seductive subtext in the interactions between characters, and mysteries and secrets at the heart of the main characters. It’s a heady and appealing mix.

About the Author:

Christine Mangan is the author of the national bestsellers ‘Tangerine’ and ‘Palace of the Drowned’. She has her PhD in English from University College Dublin, with a focus on 18th-century Gothic literature, and an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Southern Maine. She lives in Detroit.

Book Review: ‘Divine Might’ by Natalie Haynes

I absolutely love Natalie Haynes – her writing is excellent and her podcasts (‘Natalie Haynes Stands Up For The Classics’) are both enlightening and witty. She can take some impossibly complex ideas and make them engaging, accessible and entertaining – this is exactly how I like my Classics and I just wish that my lecturers at university back in the mists of time had been half as funny when we looked at Homer!

Book Review: ‘Hunted’ by Abir Mukherjee

Wow! The pace of this book is incredible – this is one you’ll pick up, read at every opportunity and it will have to be prised out of your hands!

I really loved Abir Mukherjee’s Wyndham and Banerjee historical crime series, but I didn’t know whether I’d feel quite the same about a modern thriller as they aren’t my usual fayre. I’m quite happy to report that I loved this too.

Book Review: ‘The Ministry of Time’ by Kaliane Bradley

This was such an odd book! I think mostly in a good way, but it really wasn’t what I was expecting.

The story focused on a top-secret project where selected figures from the past have been ‘rescued’ from death in their own time periods and transported to the future. In this future, each of the ‘expats’ from history are assigned a ‘bridge’, a civil servant to help them acclimatise to their new existence. One of these visitors from the past is Commander Gore, an explorer who – as far as the history books are concerned- died on a failed expedition to the Arctic in the Victorian era. He is assigned to a female ‘bridge’ and so begins the process of learning about the modern age. However, nothing (and especially secret time travel, it seems) is simple and the project soon proves to be more dangerous than was envisaged for all involved.